#especially the dunmer

[transmairon]

Every time I see Elder Scrolls elves with human looking eyes and facial features, I take 100 points of psychic damage.

People who cannot handle their big beautiful tilted eyes and brows, non-white sclera, protruding browbones, narrow faces, and sharp chins do not deserve them. They are not supposed to look like generic fantasy elves, and that is what makes them so great. They are supposed to look alien.

[lambasi]

please infodump about vivayth <3 if you gotta narrow it down, her relation with hircine and/or mehrunes dagon

sits down. right so-

the bases of vivayth's entire worldviews, her developments and delusions, her copes, it can all be led back to her introduction to lycanthropy. she couldn't really reconcile her zealous, century-long faith in the tribunal with the fact that she had become exactly what she was taught to hate, what she was taught stands against everything dunmeri society was: an abomination. she's long since made peace with that and happily embraces the title of 'demon' a lot of people toss her way, but a lot went down for that to happen... (more info below)

she went through a lot of effort to try and figure out exactly why this happened, why the living gods would allow hircine to infect her so, and allow her to remain this way, to be shunned by their servants and soldiers, their hands, their very mouthpieces. when she couldn't turn to her estranged family nor those she loved, she was led down a very dark road by another once-zealous faithful corrupted by the forces of oblivion, so it was only inevitable that she'd crack. after the things she's seen and done, and when she realized exactly who and what she'd become, who wouldn't?

she spent a long time searching for answers, uprooting secrets that would've been better left of alone. many sleepless nights were spent poring through texts that scrambled her mind or destroyed themselves upon being read, or going out of her way to beseech the long-dead for answers. between all the scraps of knowledge that she collected, she came to believe that hircine was a servant of mehrunes dagon, his personal huntsman to test the mettle of his armies (and later on she develops the idea that perhaps hircine himself is a sort of demiprince or daedra lord under dagon's service, or an avatar of dagon himself). this is based on old lore jsyk, like battlespire-era

this mostly happened because she's very morrowind-minded from a metaphysical point of view. even though she's spent a significant portion of her 180 years alive dedicating herself to studies on the metaphysical, mystical and occult after a brush with a renegade wise-woman—which theoretically should not even be remotely bound to something so arbitrarily mortal like culture—she can't help but be very conservative and patriotic in mindset and that warps a lot of her perceptions of reality, creating some very, uh, eccentric interpretations of the most foundational aspects of the aurbis. that is all to say her mind struggled a lot to reconcile an inherently outlander consequence such as lycanthropy with an explicitly dunmeri foundational belief, that being the house of troubles and their role in the theology.

soon enough she started to believe that dagon had a direct hand in the events that cursed her with lycanthropy, and that it's one of two of oblivion's sacred tools to help mortals (more importantly, her specifically) break free from the shackles of limitation imposed by the aedra (the other being vampirism, which she reveres FAR more than the comparative self-loathing she feels toward lycanthropes)

[sigmaelxgr]

WIP

Guilt, sorrow and Worm Cult Molkhun Dahkem

[vrrl]

Finally made a poster for my AU! (Inspired by the series "True Detective" and true crime video.)

AU "case № 17.65"

"The investigation into the mysterious murder of official Indoril Nerevar falls on the shoulders of professional detective Redamis Radono.

He pulled up old archives and found the main suspect - Vico Velasco, a drug dealer and newly released prisoner.

All the evidence leads to an illegal immigrant, but he turns out to have a strong alibi. Who killed the official and planted the evidence remains to be seen. To solve the mystery, the detective very reluctantly teams up with a former prisoner in order to return Vico his “honest” name and find the criminal."

[oryndoll]

i feel like the elder scrolls has the best elf concepts of the big fantasy games (for me)

[bam-monsterhospital]

eso pet peeve

when elves refer to themselves/their people by the bastardized human version of their name.

y'know, altmer referring to themselves as 'high elves', dunmer referring to themselves as 'dark elves', bosmer referring to themselves as 'wood elves', that sorta thing. hearing an orsimer refer to themselves as an 'orc' is less jarring due to their history in eso...

but a dunmer or altmer referring to themself as a 'dark elf/high elf' when not in the process of humouring/talking-down-to ignorant humans? it reaks of dnd-brain. it's jarring and doesn't work with the world.

[felifeltfrog]

Ngl as someone who's used to the alien elves of Bethesda games I am still shook everytime I load up bg3 and see elves who're just

Humans w pointy ears and funky colors

[john-of-liechtenstein]

missing her (skyrim)

[sasquach-scratches]

Things I want answered by TES but won't be because the Devs have been cowards after Morrowind:

-Do elf pits stink like a human's? Their diets are likely similar but is their physiology different enough where it would be radically different? Like an animal's in comparison?

-Are Dunmer generally circumcised?

[transmairon]

Kinda wished they had kept the old voice for him. Because while the Skyrim dunmer voice actor fits most of the dunmer npcs much more than the old Oblivion elf voice, Aldos's singing doesn't have the same "omf" anymore.

Another highly memorable NPC who received a new voice actor was Aldos Othran, giving us a new rendition of the "Cliff Racer Song".

[k-im-lost]

I'm an absolute whore for dunmers it's not even funny

[transmairon]

One of my favourite changes in the Oblivion Remaster is that they made all the Bosmer more brown/bronze skinned and a lot of the Imperials look darker and more Mediterranean. Also, Bosmer and Altmer no longer have human coloured eyes and the Dunmer finally have black and red eyes instead of just looking like they have been hitting the bong.

[liaratisoni]

Loving these two new costumes I got. Idrilain with the returning Mercymother's Attire and Rihla with the new Wizard About Town that's finally arrived <3

[steakandpeanutbuttersandwiches]

I'll admit, I'm super into Khajiit. I've even learnt a bit of the fan Ta'agra Conlang.

I especially love the Furstocks concept. Desperate to have a TES game that lets you play as an Alfiq, although I know it'll likely never be... :(

Hmmmm.... Honey in TES...... Would be............ An Argonian?

Yep! It was between Argonian and another Dunmer (but with veeerryyy long ears) but when I really thought about it, Honey must have a degree of Creature to his design that could really only be achieved with an Argonian 😂

[bforblitz]

do the pro-imperialist aspects of tes generally come from oblivion? i've only played morrowind where theyre an antagonistic colonizing force, and skyrim where they're an incompetent bureaucracy, so i was surprised to see your "pro imperialist" take in that one post😭 totally agree about the racism though

okay not to go on full autism mode but. this is highkey my special interest so this is going to be a long post. this does get kind of serious, so i want to preface that this is all just fiction, but it's important to analyze how writers' internal biases can affect the worlds they build. and like I don’t think the Bethesda writers are like “graaa!!! kill all minorities!!” in a way that’s different from the average liberal American imperialist brainrot.

TL;DR tes is pro-imperialist because the empire is constantly portrayed as either good or not as bad as the other options + characterizes racial minorities in a super "they deserve to get colonized" way.

Pretty much every tes game has aspects of pro-imperialism (the only exception I can think of is Redguard). Oblivion is 100% the most pro-imperialist, but Skyrim and Morrowind are steeped in pro-imperialist rhetoric as well, it’s just a little more subtle than “DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS: THE VIDEO GAME”.

OBLIVION

I don’t think I need to explain too much on why Oblivion is pro-imperialist outside of the concept of “the Emperor is divinely chosen so only he and by extension the Empire can save the world”. The only way to stop the Oblivion Crisis is to relight the Dragon Fires, which only the Emperor can do because of a covenant with Akatosh that says he’ll protect Mundus so long as Alessia’s heirs (aka dragonborns) sit on the throne, and thus the Empire’s claim to dominance is legitimized because they are literally divinely chosen as the protector of Nirn. There’s also how Pelinal is portrayed as a noble hero that the player actually “becomes” when he committed genocide against the Ayleids so extensively that even his allies were disgusted (bit awkward if the player is an elf).

Now I COULD go into how Mankar Camoran’s writings can be interpreted as anti-imperialist, but that’s a huge can of worms that I don’t feel equipped to talk about because there is like. genuinely theological analysis there and I’m a filthy non-believer.

MORROWIND

Morrowind’s pro-imperialism is actually quite interesting. It’s definitely critical of the Empire, painting it as bloated and corrupt, but any attempt at anti-imperialism is stifled by other factors.

The Nerevarine is an imperialist agent. Like not “you work for the Empire”, but ACTIVELY furthering imperialism and making it easier for the Empire to colonize Morrowind. I can expand on this on a different post, but the Empire uses the Nerevarine to politically destabilize Morrowind .

The only reason Morrowind is not a fully incorporated province is because of the Tribunal. Tiber Septim understandably did not want to fight three living gods, so he instead made a deal with Vivec that allowed Morrowind to be semi-autonomous. The current Empire probably also doesn’t want to wrestle with the Tribunal, plus they’ve got Dagoth Ur and Corprus to deal with as well. The Tribunal are also generally seen positively because they’ve done so much to improve the lives of the average Dunmer.

So it’s very, very convenient for them that there’s a local prophecy about an outlander hero (who can be born within the Empire) that is destined to defeat Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal. This is best seen in the Tribunal DLC, in which Helseth (my cringe problematic failson) literally says that now that the Temple is weakened after Almalexia’s disappearance, he can better implement his policies (which are intrinsically in the Empire’s interest). The Empire basically highjacks a sacred prophecy from an indigenous people (the Ashlanders) so they can colonize better.

The Empire is definitely painted as kind of scummy for this, especially since they blackmail you and likely Caius, but only in their methods. Yes, there’s criticism of the Empire, but it’s often coming from people we aren’t supposed to agree with. The idea of the Empire taking over Morrowind is only questioned by locals who are painted as xenophobic bigots and the strangely large amount of tax evaders. Or straight up bio-terrorist cult leader Dagoth Ur. The Empire certainly isn’t perfect, but seeing as how Morrowind is a place of constant strife and danger, they’re the best choice for “stabilizing” the region and making it “safer”.

Going into a more doylist analysis, Morrowind is extremely orientalist. Like by the gods, it is SO orientalist. Let’s start with the fact that Morrowind is explicitly referred to as “the East” while the Empire is “the West”. The Dunmer are analogous to several Asian + MENA cultures, it’s stated by the writers they were inspired by the Japanese and Egyptians. Dunmeri culture is seen as backwards (slavery), violent (solve problems by killing people), mystical (elven magic), conniving (bureaucratic corruption and murder plots), and highly xenophobic. Most of the people on the player’s side are either not from Morrowind or sympathetic to the Empire’s cause (whether they know it or not). We’re clearly getting set up for a Western civilization vs. Eastern barbarism dynamic.

This is best seen in the issue of slavery. In-game, the Dunmer view slavery as part of their tradition and culture. The Empire views slavery as a backward and evil institution that must be abolished. Slavery is undoubtedly evil, and the average tes player is probably going to agree with that. At the baseline, the player is already more supportive of the Empire on this issue because their position reflects our irl values. The primary pro-slavery House is Telvanni, who are arrogant, “crazy” xenophobes. Telvanni is also extremely anti-Empire, and there are many instances where violence is literally just the only answer to problems. The primary anti-slavery House is Hlaalu, who are hypocritical, conniving opportunists. Hlaalu is pro-Empire, but only for their own economical reasons, so they don’t come out of this looking very good either. The writing on the wall is “this culture is so inherently violent and primitive that those who are against this great civilizing force hate us because of we’re bringing progress and those who are with us are doing so because they have no loyalty and are willing to betray their own kind”. Textbook orientalism.

This isn’t even talking about how in Bloodmoon you literally can found a colony, or how the Dunmer traditionally worship the “demonic” Daedra, or how living in an inhospitable place and being violent partly because of that is literally how people talk about MENA people. There is so much that could be said about how Morrowind is pro-imperialist, but I don’t want to ramble for too long.

SKYRIM

Skyrim is, in my opinion, the writers’ attempt at writing something anti-imperial that just ends up being imperialist because they don’t understand how anti-imperialism works. There is, again, a lot to talk about that I can make a separate post on, but I’ll be going over what I think is the most notable examples.

Let’s start with the Empire. Again, the Empire is NOT painted in a good light. But it is kind of telling that most people agree that they're the better of the two options because at least they aren't ethnonationalists, they're only oppressive imperialists. Kinda racist, but at least not as racist?

In my opinion, the Stormcloaks are more interesting when it comes to analyzing Skyrim as pro-imperialism.

First off, we can’t ignore the fact the Stormcloaks are white. Like THE whitest race in tes, PASTY white. They also have that christianized version of the Viking aesthetic going on (@trickstarbrave has a great post about this). They’re literally called the STORMcloaks. They’re based in Racism, the City. They are literally ethnonationalist white supremacists, and I think it’s kind of fucked up that their ideology is treated as a valid way to rule a country.

Similarly, the main negative of the Stormcloaks is the racism. But that really isn’t a negative for people who like them. At best, it’s something they can downplay (not to call anyone out but I’ve seen fics where the author explicitly says their version of the Stormcloaks is “less racist”). At worst, it’s the reason they like them. The portrayal of racism in Skyrim is also cartoonishly hamfisted and inaccurate. The other negative is them not being able to defend Skyrim against the Thalmor, but I'll go into this later.

It's also important to point out that the Stormcloaks' whole thing is that they want to rule Skyrim independent from the Empire because it's their homeland and they don't want the man to tell them what to do. However, in the lore, the Nords stole Skyrim from the Snow Elves, who they proceeded to genocide and enslave (reminder that Windhelm was built by Snow Elf slaves). This is literally the same dynamic as "the white colonists of the U.S. wanted to rule themselves because it's their land, don't ask about the people that have been living here for thousands of years".

The anti-indigenous rhetoric is RAMPANT in Skyrim, and I don't think I need to explain how imperialism begets it. The Snow Elves are said to be dead and gone, which falls into the trope of indigenous people being in the past and not existing in the present. But more importantly, THEY'RE LITERALLY STILL THERE. The Falmer are painted as mindless beasts, but they clearly have culture. They've domesticated Chaurus, they've built their own homes, they have some type of religious structure. They're people that are understandably scared of outsiders who are invading their home, which is why they attack anyone who wanders too close. Again, painting an indigenous group as "mindless savages with no culture who kill innocent people and steal babies" is like THE trick in the anti-indigenous, racist playbook.

The Reachfolk aren't treated any better either. The Forsworn is a group fighting against the people who stole their land, genocided them, and threw them in a labor camp. They are by all rights in the moral good here, but the writers have tacked on very questionable things. They have demonic, Daedric rituals where they transform their own into evil crones and mindless warriors. They wear little to no clothes to represent their "wild" nature. They're bandits who attack innocents and pillage the "civilized". Truly the ONLY quest in Skyrim that isn't about how much we fucking hate indigenous people is the Forsworn Conspiracy, and even then Madanach compromises his own values in collaboration with the Nords. At the end of the day, the Nords are portrayed as the best option for keeping Skyrim at peace. They are in the right for driving the Reachfolk and Falmer off their land.

We have now reached the point where I say probably my most controversial tes lore opinion: I'm pro-Thalmor but for a very specific meta analysis reason. I promise I do NOT like fascism or racism.

The Thalmor being fascistic ethnonationalist who manipulate 4E politics from the shadows is reflective of the writer’s pro-imperialist views and actively deploys anti-semetic + sinophobic tropes. Stripping things of their weird racist tes context: the Thalmor are a political group that rose up against a colonial power that genocided their race. They came to their peoples’ aid during one of the most horrific tragedy when the colonial power could not, and They are actively supporting other colonized peoples to fight against their oppressors (reminder that the writers felt like it was okay to say the Thalmor were behind the Argonian invasion of Morrowind).

How the Thalmor are portrayed in Skyrim is truly fucking terrible. They want to genocide the humans simply because they think they're better than them. They want to get rid of Talos worship because they simply can't accept that a human could ever ascend to godhood. They want to destroy human culture because it is inferior to their own. They are manipulating the scene, they control the Imperial government, which is ineffective and bending to their whims. They're doing evil against humans and the Empire.

I need to stress that the Altmer are in some parts inspired by East Asian cultures (the old Altmer art is literally holding a katana while wearing a shitty recreation of traditional Japanese wear), particularly the Chinese. In fact, ALL of the non-human races are based on BIPOC cultures. Combined with what I said in the previous paragraph, what does that say?

The minorities DO hate us. The minorities WILL form a coalition to destroy us. The minorities DO control everything and want to eradicate us and our culture. The minorities DO want revenge. They are a faceless hoard, a force of brutal and manipulative power that we know nothing about except for the fact that they hate us. They are lying in wait to strike when we are weak. And if we don't get rid of them first, they will do EXACTLY what we did to them.

THAT is exactly how fascism frames its victims. They are weak, but they are strong. They hate us, so we must hate them. If we win, we will return to our former glory and rule the world as its rightful kings. And if we lose?

They will exterminate us.

Now, giving them the benefit of the doubt, I don't think the people at Bethesda are like. consciously into killing minorities. I think this is just the product of that particular flavor of imperialist, borderline fascistic brainrot that every American has (source: I'm an American and I absolutely unconsciously held similar views, even as a POC). Then again, that’s like basically the same thing.

It's really hard to watch people just NOT understand that writers' conscious and unconscious biases affect their writing. I ultimately torture myself by deeply loving this series, and I don't expect people to like suddenly start hating it because it's problematic in the way 99% of fantasy and sci-fi media is.

so yeah. that's the condensed version of my opinion.

[grandpa-swamp]

finally sat down and drew all my dragonborns! they're all weird freaks and I love them

a little personality spiel on each below the cut:

Irvaryn (they/them) is a Dunmer refugee who for their whole life have been completely mute. As such they employ vivid expression and body language to help communicate those who do not understand their signing. They are naturally very curious, but know enough to sense danger and when apprehension is necessary (most of the time). They are well read and know much of history, religion, culture, etc. They’re strangely understanding and welcoming to those different from them, always seeking to learn more about the world they inhabit. Though they haven't any qualms with killing, or really any type of crime, they have some code of ethics that many simply cannot understand. They typically have a calm and seemingly cheerful demeanor, even in the face of danger or morbid situations. They are a worshipper of the reclamations, but mostly favor Mephala.

Do'zharo (he/him) is a hulking Pahmar warrior, proud and noble. Many would think him as being Nord in a past life as he is fervently obsessed with honor, doing good, and fighting well. He despises those who would steal or recklessly kill for fortune or glory, instead believing honor is earned through helping others in need. Despite his staggering and frightening appearance, he is a sweet albeit simple soul. He appreciates a modest and humble lifestyle, and has a special appreciation of nature and all living creatures. He believes in mercy, and never attacks unless provoked. He is a bit over confident, and often very reckless, and notably uses no weapons in combat. He is happy to accept the help of others, and can be very protective to those he is close to. He is a devout worshipper of the Khajiit pantheon, especially for Alkosh, Mara and Azurah.

Waelin (he/him) may appear advanced in age, but is as spry and strong as he's ever been- even at nearly 300 years old. He is a man of extremely few words; always to the point, and says exactly what he means to. He acts in a way that many would think reckless, but having lived so long, he understands his actions and their consequences better than anyone else. Nothing much surprises him, and he shows little emotion. Though a fierce warrior and no stranger to bloodshed, he does not kill unless necessary, and despises assassins. He prefers to be alone, and often wanders off into the wilderness for time to himself. Many would mistake his inclination to helping others and fulfilling prophecies as heroic, but the truth is he hardly cares for the world he lives in anymore. He worships no Aedra or Daedra, and in fact resent both with a burning passion. And yet, he wears an amulet of Akatosh at all times.